Stanley and the Women Characters

If the novel has a general thesis, however, it is that women are capable of a mode of infuriatingly irrational behavior which men are simply not allowed to exhibit. This thesis is highly provocative, and to make any impact at all it has to be shown working in practice, repeatedly and realistically. The novel stands or falls, accordingly, on a sequence of conversations in which Stanley’s good intentions are defeated and ridiculed by one woman or another. Are the conversations credible? Do they create a consistent sense of character? Do individualities stand out from a general evocation of “femaleness”?

The first of these questions, at least, can be answered positively. Amis is a close observer and a skillful reporter and, throughout the novel, succeeds admirably in creating scenes which look recognizable, have all the component parts of ordinary conversation, but nevertheless work out as cumulatively ominous. He turns ordinary bad manners into something more sinister. A simple example comes from the minor character of Susan’s sister Alethea. She has the very common habit of never letting anyone else finish a sentence, even when it is a reply to one of her questions. She asks Stanley how things are going in Fleet Street (which is polite enough) but immediately moderates this by asking him if he has had any “good scoops.” Since Stanley is an advertising manager, this is hardly his job, but he tries gamely to frame a polite reply; Alethea, however, has already started talking about her house. A few moments later, she again addresses a mildly contemptuous remark to Stanley about “rich socialists” (she thinks that he is one which is false. but once everyone has heard a conversation such as this one. Yet the reader, put on the alert by many similar events, can hardly fail to draw the conclusion that Alethea, like many others in reality, has no interest in other people. Her conversation is like her...

(The entire section is 786 words.)

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Stanley Duke, the narrator, the advertising manager of a London newspaper. He is a balding, middle-aged man now in his second marriage. He is intelligent and perceptive; still, he has little understanding of women, at least of the women in his own life. When his son falls ill, he is beleaguered by three women—his former wife, his current wife, and the doctor treating his son—all of whom, he believes, are behaving toward him in a hostile and irrational manner.

Steve Duke

Steve Duke, Stanley’s nineteen-year-old son, from his first marriage. He is believed to be traveling in Spain with his girlfriend, but he turns up suddenly at Stanley’s door. He talks and behaves in a bizarre fashion and eventually is diagnosed as schizophrenic and committed to a hospital for treatment. He is released into his father’s care for a time but is recommitted after his stepmother alleges that he attacked and slightly wounded her with a knife.

Nowell Hutchinson

Nowell Hutchinson, Stanley’s first wife, to whom he was married for thirteen years. She is a fading television actress now married to a television producer. She is a selfish woman who has the facility for creating an alternate reality, which always suits her own interests. She attempts to take care of Steve for a day or so but quickly concludes that his illness is his father’s fault and that she bears no responsi-bility.

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(The entire section is 512 words.)

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